It's my soapbox topic, I'm afraid. I get so sick of owners letting their dogs run up to others with the "S/he only wants to say hi, s/he's friendly". It can undo months of training when it happens and cause misery for other dog walkers

My personal take on leads is that they are a necessary "evil". Ben was DA in his middle years, so we had to keep him on a lead. As he got into old age, he became almost completely non-DA. Even when he was permanently leashed, I personally did not mind if other dogs off leash came into his space. Despite the fact that almost definitely he would beat them up, he would never inflict injury it was all just sound and fury. My view is that if you allow your dog to invade another dog's space who is leashed, then you cannot moan if the leashed dog is aggressive - it is all about personal space - some dogs do not like other dogs coming into their space, particularly if they are leashed. Having said that, I would still expect Ben not to kick off ... I expected him to be tolerant of approaches by friendly dogs, especially if they were small dogs.

I do think that frequently it is owners who cause the problems, not the dogs. So many times would our old boy Hal, who very rarely was leashed, go up to say hello to other dogs and the owners would start shrieking "put your dog on a lead" and flapping hysterically at Hal. This would then wind up their dog, and there would be words. Hal just backed off and came back to us, he was a true alpha male without an aggressive bone in his body.

If possible, I think dogs should be off lead where safe and I have no problem with friendly dogs coming to say hello to mine - even Ben. It was all part of his training as far as I was concerned.

I do think that frequently it is owners who cause the problems, not the dogs. So many times would our old boy Hal, who very rarely was leashed, go up to say hello to other dogs and the owners would start shrieking "put your dog on a lead" and flapping hysterically at Hal.

Agree except that it is my experience that the owners shriek at their own dogs.

It takes a lot of commitment to gain the trust and loyalty of your dog so that you don't have to tether it and scream at it just for you to be ignored by it.

A little more on what happened. Max was on the opposite side to me on the footpath we were crossing. He was trotting back to me when the owner walked down the path between myself and Max. I didn't know they were there until I turned round to check on Max, but a close encounter was inevitable as we crossed paths.

We meet lots of dogs on leads with zero problems. I had no prior knowledge that this delinquent, disobedient little sod would be so aggressive towards Max.

And, just by way of one example, this how he treats other little dogs, even when they try to bite his magnificent tail:

Yet, you lot somehow still see it as MY fault?

This photo to me looks like a scared dog with his tail tucked fleeing an aggressor. Doesn't look like a focused dog obeying commands. If you aren't the photographer, you are likely too far from your dog here to have any real control. And if you are the photographer, he isn't coming to you or facing you so he can't be obeying a command.

I honestly think you're trying WAY too hard here. My dog is very well behaved but I don't put him on a pedestal and act like he's perfect. Not leashing him across roads and allowing him to intrude upon leashed dogs space when he is unleashed isn't responsible on your part, even if the dog does not do anything wrong.